FTX seeks sale of Grayscale and Bitwise assets worth $744M

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has requested the bankruptcy court in Delaware allow it to sell certain key trust fund assets, including from crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments and custody service provider Bitwise, valued at around $744 million.

In a court filing dated Nov. 3, FTX debtors requested the court to allow them to sell trust assets to enable the firm to prepare for “forthcoming dollarized distributions to creditors.”

These trust assets are held in one Bitwise trust valued at $53 million and five Grayscale trusts valued at $691 million. The trusts act as an onboarding instrument for investors to gain crypto exposure without owning the assets.

Grayscale and Bitwise trust assets breakdown. Source: Kroll

The court filing reads:

“The Debtors’ judgment is that proactively mitigating the risk of price swings will best protect the value of the Trust Assets, thereby maximizing the return to creditors and promoting an equitable distribution of funds in the Debtors’ plan of reorganization.”

The FTX debtors requested that an investment adviser should approve the sale of trust assets and sale procedures. They also proposed a pricing committee represented by the stakeholders to be part of the sale procedure.

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The latest request by FTX debaters for the sale of trust assets comes after the court had earlier approved the liquidation of nearly $3.4 billion in crypto assets. The court ordered the sale of these assets in batches of $50 million and $100 million to avoid any market dump effects.

The FTX bankruptcy proceedings are proceeding as its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty by a jury on all seven counts during his criminal trial in New York. Bankman-Fried was found guilty of two counts of wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of securities fraud, one count of commodities fraud conspiracy and one count of money laundering conspiracy. The judge is set to hand down sentencing in the case on March 28, 2024.

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